Website review: Frozen Bacteria Repair Own DNA for ...
Someone discovered this in Microbiology
•3 reviews since Aug 27, 2007
microbiology
•news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/0708...
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pankajsapkal rated 9 months ago- The more I read about bacteria, the more fascinated I get. This nat geo article says that bacteria actually keep up metabolic activity while being frozen - just enough to effect continual repair of their own DNA. Now, thats like those legendary stories of those Yogis, who could survive in suspended animation for decades (while being buried underground or something). Perhaps they bring their metabolism to such a minimal level that they are barely alive, and the systemic integrity of communication between the body cells still remains. So, they can be resurrected. (I have only heard stories of Yoga masters who could do this - never verified it). Another interesting parallel is that it is a well-established fact that our basic energy producing unit, the mitochondria, were once free bacteria. Now they are integrated with our bodies. And suspended animation and lowered cellular metabolism would involve being able to control the cellular energy production via the mitochondria - just barely keep the fire burning - very close to the boundary that differentiates life and inanimate matter. Yes, this sounds like sci-fi, and should be considered as such :) Maybe these are special Yoga-trained bacteria, you think?
- laodan rated 9 months ago
- Frozen Bacteria Repair Own DNA for Millennia in National Geographic by Mason Inman
Bacteria can survive in deep freeze for hundreds of thousands of years by staying just alive enough to keep their DNA in good repair, a new study says. Frozen Bacteria Repair Own DNA for Millennia Speaking about resilience... The principle of life seems to be hard wired for resisting extreme conditions. Advanced forms of life such as the human specie, for example, do not benefit from the same kind of resilience. It seems to me that the more advanced the level of development of a specie (the more diverse its components and the more complex their interactions) the less resilient that specie becomes. If this is correct it would mean that complexity engenders higher levels of fragility. Each new component engenders a flow of interactions with the other components. And a single interaction among that flow has the potential to destabilize the whole flux of interactions... There is a deep lesson of philosophy hidden in this mechanism of complexification - fragilization. I bet that the study of that mechanism shall gradually impose itself on a humanity discovering that it is at risk...
- Frozen Bacteria Repair Own DNA for Millennia in National Geographic by Mason Inman
